Pictor
Origin
Pictor is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, located between the star Canopus and the Large Magellanic Cloud. Pictor was first described by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille in 1756. The orignal name of the constellation was Pictor as le Chevalet et la Palette which translates as "the easel and the palette". It was later shortened to Pictor and is usually depcited as an artist easel.
Bright Stars
Alpha Pictoris is the brightest star in the constellation; it is a white main sequence star with an apparent magnitude of 3.3. Beta Pictoris is another white main sequence star of apparent magnitude 3.86. Beta Pictoris is surrounded by a disk of gas that is rich in carbon. Gamma Pictoris is an orange giant shining with an apparent magnitude of 4.5.
Photo of the constellation Pictor produced by NOIRLab in collaboration with Eckhard Slawik, a German astrophotographer.
The annotations are from a standardized set of 88 western IAU constellations and stick figures from Sky & Telescope. Please find here a non-annotated version of the image.
Credit: E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani
Latin name
Pictor
Genitive forms
Pictoris
English name
The Painter's Easel
Pronunciation
PICK-tor
Abbreviation
Pic
Notable Objects
Pictor has no bright star clusters or galaxies.
